Event Title
The Power of Relationships: Effective and Ineffective Advising at Colby College
Location
Diamond 123
Start Date
1-5-2014 1:00 PM
End Date
1-5-2014 3:00 PM
Project Type
Presentation- Restricted to Campus Access
Description
Advising is a crucial part of the undergraduate experience and this report examines the effectiveness of the advice Colby College students received from various people (e.g., friends, peers, family, professors, advisors, mentors) during their college experience. Interview transcripts from the New England Consortium on Assessment and Student Learning (NECASL) project, which interviewed 36 Colby students from various backgrounds over four years and one year after graduation (2006-2011), were analyzed to explore the effectiveness of advising. Through this analysis, effective formal advising, effective informal advising, and ineffective advising emerged as the major themes. The research found that peer advising served as the most effective, and heavily relied on, form of advising, professors who served as mentors for students effectively advised students, and various factors prevented formal advisors from effectively advising students. In order to enhance the effectiveness of advising at Colby, it is recommended that an advisor handbook be created to facilitate better student-advisor relationships and a formal student-student advising program be created to bridge the gap in the efficacy of formal and informal advising.
Faculty Sponsor
Mark Tappan
Sponsoring Department
Colby College. Education Program
CLAS Field of Study
Interdisciplinary Studies
Event Website
http://www.colby.edu/clas
ID
268
The Power of Relationships: Effective and Ineffective Advising at Colby College
Diamond 123
Advising is a crucial part of the undergraduate experience and this report examines the effectiveness of the advice Colby College students received from various people (e.g., friends, peers, family, professors, advisors, mentors) during their college experience. Interview transcripts from the New England Consortium on Assessment and Student Learning (NECASL) project, which interviewed 36 Colby students from various backgrounds over four years and one year after graduation (2006-2011), were analyzed to explore the effectiveness of advising. Through this analysis, effective formal advising, effective informal advising, and ineffective advising emerged as the major themes. The research found that peer advising served as the most effective, and heavily relied on, form of advising, professors who served as mentors for students effectively advised students, and various factors prevented formal advisors from effectively advising students. In order to enhance the effectiveness of advising at Colby, it is recommended that an advisor handbook be created to facilitate better student-advisor relationships and a formal student-student advising program be created to bridge the gap in the efficacy of formal and informal advising.
https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/clas/2014/program/345